NSE Fraud Case: Chitra Ramkrishna Sent to Tihar Jail till 28th March
Moneylife Digital Team 14 March 2022
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday sent Chitra Ramkrishna, former managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of National Stock Exchange (NSE), to 14 days of judicial custody. She will be lodged at Tihar Jail. The CBI is probing the alleged abuse of the Exchange’s server architecture for granting preferential access of market data to a stockbroker ahead of others.  
 
A CBI court also refused to give VIP treatment to Ms Ramkrishna. "Every Person is the same. She cannot be a VIP prisoner because of what she had been. Rules cannot be changed," observed the judge.

However, the court permitted her to carry four books, including a copy of Hanuman Chalisa and Bhagwad Gita, for prayers.

Ms Ramkrishna was produced before the special court after the expiry of her custodial remand. The court remanded her to 14-day judicial custody.
 
Ms Ramkrishna was arrested on 7th March, a day after the special court in Delhi dismissed her petition for a pre-arrest bail plea and pulled up the CBI for inaction and being ‘lackadaisical’ in the probe against her over the past four years. 
 
While rejecting her counsel’s request for home-cooked food in jail, special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal also asked Ms Ramkrishna to be physically produced before the court on 28th March, “I’ve also had it... It’s good,” the judge remarked.
 
The court also turned down the lawyer’s plea to allow her to carry masks.
 
The CBI in its submission told the special court that Anand Subramanian was well connected with Ms Ramkrishna prior to his engagement as her chief strategic adviser at NSE. His wife Sunitha Subramanian also served as the regional head of NSE at Chennai from April 2011, the agency says.
 
As reported by Moneylife, the enforcement directorate (ED) has stepped in to examine a possible money laundering angle in the NSE co-location (Colo) scam.
 
Over the past few days, CBI has taken statements from all the senior NSE officials who had been named in the show-cause notices issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) over the past seven years. 
 
Many senior officials from NSE, having recorded their statements, have been made to confront Ms Ramkrishna, the former MD and CEO who quit the Exchange in 2016. However, Ms Ramkrishna, say sources, has steadfastly denied all responsibility for the Colo scam and claimed that only the technology team would have answers to issues like preferential access.    
 
We learn that the CBI team has done extensive work on the scam and seems up-to-date with all developments. However, it is not clear if they are correctly focused on who are the beneficiaries of the crooked system, which was facilitated by a porous and easy-to-manipulate access system. 
 
It is also unclear if the focus is on Ms Ramkrishna or Ravi Narain, former MD and CEO of NSE. After all, Colo and high-frequency trading (HFT), including scandals, had happened long before NSE began trading (Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys is all about it). Hence, it is hard to believe that the Exchange forgot to put in place a process that ensured a level playing field for very large investors, who put through millions of trades in seconds. (Read: Moneylife Exclusive: Enforcement Directorate Steps in to Probe Money Laundering Angle in NSE Colo Scam)
 
The Colo case dates to 2015 when Moneylife published a letter by a whistle-blower going by the name Ken Fong in June 2015. The whistle-blower alleged that NSE officials were selectively allowing a few brokers to reap massive profits through preferential access to its Colo servers in the form of early log-in or access to servers with low trading loads. 
 
In February last year, SEBI’s adjudication officer imposed a penalty of Rs1 crore on NSE for its failure to ensure a level playing field for trading members subscribing to its tick-by-tick (TBT) data feed. NSE’s former MD and CEO Mr Narain and Ms Ramkrishna were penalised with a fine of Rs25 lakh each. 
 
Before that in April 2019, SEBI had ordered disgorgement of profits from NSE and salaries of former MDs, Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna.  The regulator has also asked the Exchange to disgorge an amount of Rs624.89 crore along with interest calculated at the rate of 12% per annum to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF).
 
Read our coverage on NSE Algo Scam here
 
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Comments
saharaaj
3 years ago
she has to disclose the God's hand ( paraphrasing Diego Maradona footballer)
mcshekhar2009
3 years ago
When are Ravi Narain & Board of Directors being arrested ??
Ravindranath
3 years ago
This should serve as a awakening call for all the other thieves in positions of public service but helping criminals to loot the citizens savings.

The day is not too far when karma will catches up on you and your family and friends will be ashamed of your existence.

Be honest in your job and serve the country if you are in public service.
vaibhavdhoka
3 years ago
They should be labelled as financial terrorist,and most importantly their assets should be attached.
vaibhavdhoka
3 years ago
Now beuracrates are being bought on records before courts is good sign.But this action should be sustained to logical end with timely hearing.There should not be any interference from government or beuracracy.
Nahom
3 years ago
There are many Financial Terrorists hiding in this corrupt system. Right from MOF, SEBI, .....Go after these Movers and Shakers.
5666parveen
3 years ago
Jail se kya hota hai iski saari property ki koorki karke garibo mein baat do or isko taliban bhej do
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